Memorial Marco Pantani (1.1), Italy

Winners, podium, distance, average speed.

The Memorial Marco Pantani is a single-day road race started in 2004 to honor the memory of one if Italy's most-loved racers.

The race, run in the region of Emilia-Romagna, now starts in Cesenatico, Pantani's home town and finishes in the city of his birth, Cesena.

About Marco Pantani: His career was beset with accidents, particularly his terrible collision with a car late in 1995 and his crash in the 1997 Giro. By early 1998 he was showing good form and delivered jaw-dropping performances in the Giro and Tour. In 1999 he was riding even more powerfully and about had the Giro wrapped up when he was booted after a blood test showed he had an excessively high hematocrit.

Pantani went into depression, became a cocaine addict and was never again the force he had been in cycling. He was found dead of a cocaine overdose in February, 2004.

Originally a summer race, the Memorial Marco Pantani is currently (2014) held late in the season.

Since 2006 the UCI has ranked it 1.1 made made it part of the Europe Tour.